User blog:MrBlonde267/Uncle Grandpa Creator Q
Wikia got to interview the cast and creators behind Uncle Grandpa in the pressroom at San Diego Comic-Con! We were there with Pete Browngardt, creator and voice of Uncle Grandpa, Kevin Michael Richardson, voice of Mr. Gus, and Eric Bauza, voice of Belly Bag. Earlier this week we asked YOU to supply us with interview questions and we only had a limited time to ask them, but we did our best. This is the transcription of our interview. Interview transcript Q: So what has it been like being on the show and coming to Comic-Con? ::Bauza: But yeah it's stuff like this for me anyway, I grew up watching cartoons. Just being a big fan. And then being invited to something like this it means so much to me. Q: So when you're done with this what are you most looking forward to seeing? ::Bauza: I don't know. Shatner. Just full blown Shatner. They sent a car over to pick me up for New York Comic Con in LA to go to New York, and the limo driver was like, “You know who was just sitting there right before I picked you up? William Shatner.” Q: So you were sitting in the same seat as him? :Bauza: Yeah, I sat in his gum. Son of a bitch. ::Browngardt: My favorite Comic-Con experience is last year they had a big Uncle Grandpa on the floor and his mustache was all furry and you could walk through his mouth. But meeting fans and signing stuff is always cool. Parents bring their kids and you get to interact with people that are into the show. :::Richardson: My favorite experience is when you're walking down the sidewalk and people tap you on the back and stop you and it's a random stranger that knows everything about you. Q: How do people recognize you? You're a voice actor. :Richardson: I did a little on camera work back in the day and people recognize me for certain things. It's very cool for people to just slap you and hug you for no reason. Q: I met Wesley Snipes the other day. :Richardson: Is he here? Is he here? Q: Yeah, I was supposed to interview him but I saw him in the hallway. :Richardson: So he's out of jail. Q: He's out of jail. :Richardson: Well that's cool. Anyway, I love when people pat you on the back. Especially when they come from Texas or Australia, I mean they travel from all over the world. It's just really wonderful to see how people respond for what we do for a living. It's just very rewarding. Q: So if I see you in the hallways I can just randomly slap you on the back? :Richardson: Well, no no no. Not too hard. ::Bauza: Slap him in the face. :::Richardson: That's the new high five. Q: So what's your favorite thing to do as your characters? Like what's your favorite part about playing your character? :Bauza: It's like, for me, it's part of being in a great show. I play Belly Bag which is the fanny pack that sits on Uncle Grandpa's waist. So it's really hard not to have me in the show so it kind of guarantees me a spot on television. I'm just kidding. I don't really love my character that much, hold on a sec I'm getting a call. Oh sorry, it's just my Belly Bag phone cover. But it's nice being part of a Cartoon Network show. A lot of places have their thing, like Disney or Nickelodeon but Cartoon Network has always been a place where the cool kids make cartoons. And to know that I have a voice that has been on TV on a show like Uncle Grandpa it's just like, “my god!” :Browngardt: I like to do his laugh. Q: Can you do it for us right now? :Browngardt: Yeah, yeah. It's like a chuckle, or laughter. ::Richardson: That's how he really laughs. :Browngardt: Yeah, I didn't have to go far. ::Richardson: I like it when he has to sing. I like when Mr. Gus has to sing. :Browngardt: Everyone likes to sing. ::Richardson: I like it when he sings with these guys. We have a lot of fun too. :Browngardt: We're lucky we have the right musical stuff. Kevin, he's an amazing singer. :::Bauza: He just takes one take. Q: Really? :Bauza: Yeah we have to keep taking up sessions trying to do part of the song. ::Richardson: That's not true. :::Browngardt: We have to try to get the high parts right. Q: How often do people come up to you guys to do your voices? Do you ever go asking yourself, “I'm being paid for this, why am I doing this in real life?” :Browngardt: Not too often. It's once in a while. For the kids, it's awesome. You break through that barrier where you watch the show and you actually do the voice for them and you kind of, I don't know if it kinds of ruins it for them. When I was a kid I was a fan of the Muppet Show and my brothers told me that they were all puppets and it like destroyed my world. I started crying, “No, stop, that's not true!” Q: When someone stand up with a muppet did your childhood just shatter? :Browngardt: Yeah, yeah. It's like, you know, I still don't think they believe it because I've done it and they were like, “Yeah...” ::Richardson: It's like trying to be Big Bird. :::Bauza: Just a man in a suit with pantyhose on. Q: Don't ruin the surprise! That's like saying there's no Santa Claus. :Bauza: What?! That's weird I saw three of them walking the floor yesterday. Q: So what's the weirdest thing you've seen so far this year? :Richardson: I just saw a man in a dress about ten minutes ago. It was a beautiful dress. Everything looked okay downstairs but upstairs there was like a big beard. ::Bauza: I saw him in the restroom. :::Browngardt: I saw a pretty scantily clad Mario and Luigi, female Mario and Luigi. That just seems odd. :Richardson: Men? :::Browngardt: No, girls. :Richardson: Were they pretty? You think that was weird? :::Browngardt: It's just like.. those characters.. two plumbers. It just felt weird to me. I haven't been here that long I'm sure I'll see something weirder. Q: Have you seen any really good Uncle Grandpa cosplay? :Browngardt: A year ago at Comic-Con there was this one guy that was so into it. He said the reason he wanted to cosplay Uncle Grandpa was because he wanted to show off his muscular legs. He'd put his legs up on the table and flexed his legs at us. ::Bauza: Definitely had a hospital bracelet on. Just got out. As far as odd things, I think we've been going to these things so much that it's hard to find something odd anymore. I wanna see a guy in a business suit just walking around, that's weird to me. Q: Are there any animators or voice actors that you'd love to work with? Just a personal hero you'd like to work with? :Bauza: Man. Uh, Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Pete Browngardt. ::Browngardt: Oh, Pete. Like, living or dead? If it's people that've passed away for me it would be like old Warner Brothers animators. Tom Palmer, Chuck Avery. But current, Mike Judge. Too many, I mean, luckily we did some guest director shorts that I got to work with. We met some people, some other animation artists that I like and look up to. Like, Pen Ward. This guy, Max Winston, he did shorts he was amazing. And uh, a buddy of mine someone from Mad Magazine. So it's great that we get the opportunity to do that. We get to go out and get someone we know that maybe can do good work and get him to do an Uncle Grandpa short for us for two minutes. Q: Can you tell us a little bit about the show, something coming up that we can look forward to? :Browngardt: We got Uncle Grandpa babies, it's a special and like a throwback to Muppet Babies. They're all babies and they work for a secret ops team for President Reagan in the 80s so that's pretty cool. We have two minute special about the return of Aunt Grandma which is Grandpa's nemesis. That was one of our biggest episodes. We have Lena Headey from Game of Thrones doing her voice, that was really cool. We got Cersei in there. What else do we have? ::Bauza: We got announce for another season pick up, so that's good. Q: So are you guys eventually going to get into more and more guest stars? :Browngardt: Yeah, I love doing that. We've got some great ones, we had Weird Al, Shaquille O'Neal as Shaquille O'Neal. We did that old Scooby Doo thing were they play themselves. We had people like Henry Rollins, Mark Hamill, we were very fortune to have people on the show. ::Richardson: Sting. I wish, I wish. Q: I always wonder how those guest star things happen. Is it that they love the show and reach out to you guys or do they call in to the show and ask if they can be on it? :Richardson: I think it's a little bit of both, actually. ::Browngardt: I think sometimes we'll write a character and we'll ask “who will be great for this character?” Not only celebrities but also great voice actors. Whoever, we just try to find whoever feels right. So many great people. :Richardson: Jon Heder. :::Bauza: When they come in they're just so thrilled to just try it out. ::Browngardt: When Jon Header came in he found out that Kevin played Shredder and he was so psyched about that. Q: You used to play Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? I used to watch that. :Richardson: The new one. The new version. That was James Avery that played the old one. Jon came in and said, “You're the Shredder?! Sweet!” He was great. ::Browngardt: He was such a nice guy. He played a great character. :Richardson: Of course, we have Tom Kenny. ::Browngardt: Tom's, yeah, Tom's a reoccurring character on the show. He always has.. when Tom comes into the booth, the voice recording studio, it's just to get a take because we're all talking. To do our job, you know. Since we're having so much fun. Q: Since we're at Comic-Con and we're meeting our heroes, do you guys ever have that moment when you're at Comic-Con and you meet somebody where you have a fanboy moment? :Browngardt: Absolutely. I had Sergio Gomez from Mad Magainze. I grew up reading that guy's stuff and I saw him he was just at his table doing his thing, and I got to talk to him. I was totally geeking out but he uh, he knew the show. So he asked, “What's wrong with you?” Which is funny because so many people have asked him, “What's wrong with you?” To even just know that I made something like that and he'd see it. It just blew my mind. Q: Has someone come up to you that was famous and geeked out on you? :Bauza: I usually get, “Are you Eric Bauza?” “Yeah.” “Can you move? It's Tom Kenny!” ::Richardson: Charlie Sheen. That was a good one. :::Bauza: I met Mike Tyson last year. Category:Blog posts